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Pearl Harbor

Alex Shock
Mr. Lewis
WWII Test, #2
May 6, 2009

On December 7, 1941 the Japanese led an attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack lasted two hours and killed over 2,000 people. This tragic attack convinced the United States to join World War II. This is the event that pushed the U.S. over the top and helped them decide to get involved. The main loss at the attack on Pearl Harbor was the USS Arizona. The ship was hit and 1,177 people died in it. The Japanese sunk it and the people were unable to escape. After the attack occurred, Doolittle’s Raid started. This took place on April 18, 1942. Doolittle led the attack of 16 planes with a crew of five members each. The “Hornet” spotted a small Japanese fishing boat, and Doolittle felt that the fishing boat could have possibly warned Japan that the U.S. was on their way. Although they were not where they were planning to take off Doolittle demanded that they would have to take off now. In order for them to make it all the way to China after bombing Japan they would need more fuel then they planned on taking because they were over 400 miles from where they had planned to take off. This meant making the planes heavier and if the planes got too much heavier they would not be able to take off so they had to remove everything that was not necessary in addition they also removed the tail guns and replaced them with broom sticks hoping the enemy would still think they have tail guns on them. The men on the 16 B-25’s were told to do as much damage as possible and if they weren’t going to make it to China, they should crash in Tokyo. This attack was not very successful since there were only 16 planes, meaning not much damage could be done. One thing the attack did do though was boost American morals.   American victory over the Japanese. Japan wanted it to force the United States to end the Pacific War and they also wanted to extend the Japanese defensive perimeter. Japan also wanted to make eastern and southern Asia part of its...